BATON ROUGE — Ninth-ranked LSU scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning to easily get past in-state rival Louisiana-Monroe, 9-2, on Wednesday night at Tiger Park.
With the win, the Tigers improved to 10-3 on the season and 4-0 against in-state opponents. The loss dropped the Warhawks to 6-8 overall. LSU is now 4-0 all-time against UL-Monroe, including a win over the Warhawks last season.
“We’re not particularly satisfied with tonight,” said LSU head coach Yvette Girouard. “We feel like this is a team we can run-rule but we gave up some runs and had too many throwaway at-bats. We need to be locked in. We are going to keep working at pitching, defense and hitting. We’ve got to be on serious roll when Georgia comes to Tiger Park in two weeks.”
The Tigers used pitching by committee for the game, getting action from all four pitchers, while all 16 players were on the field at one point during the game. Shannon Stein led LSU at the plate with a 3-for-4 performance and two runs scored. Rachel Mitchell went 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored. Ashley Applegate was 1-for-3 with two RBIs and Tayl’r Hollis went 1-for-1 with a home run, three RBIs and a run scored.
“We played everybody tonight and tried to rest some people,” said Girouard. “It kind of worked at times and sometimes it didn’t, but everyone did get a chance to play.”
In the circle, Dani Hofer started and allowed just one walk in two innings, striking out five of the seven batters she faced. Tiffany Garcia came on in the third and gave up one run on two hits with a walk and a strikeout.
Cody Trahan started the third inning and earned the win in relief to improve to 3-1 on the year. She allowed one hit and a walk with four strikeouts in two innings. Casey Faile closed out the final two innings. The freshman gave up one run on two hits with four strikeouts.
“I was happy with some performances and not happy with others, but that was the whole point of giving everybody some work,” said Girouard of her pitching staff. “I was not happy with the weekend. We came back and looked at film and we understand what we’re doing wrong. We had a good workout yesterday and we have one more day to fix it before we play this weekend.
“We’ve just got to be finer and sharper and can’t leave the ball over the plate. We have to work ahead and we need to worry about how we pitch and not just throw.”
LSU got on the board early in the game as Hollis hit a three-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the first. The fourth home run of the season for the shortstop scored Stein and Quinlan Duhon. Applegate then added two runs on a two-run single that scored Erika Sluss and Jessica Mouse as the Tigers took the 5-0 lead.
“We always want to score first, so to start out with a three-run home run in the first inning is awesome,” said Girouard. “Tayl’r has really been seeing the ball well.”
A bases loaded ground out by Sluss in the bottom of the second scored Mitchell from third to extend the lead to 6-0. The Warhawks got on the board with a run in the top of the third. After reaching base on a single, the first hit of the game for ULM, Brittney Brassell came around to score on a wild pitch after moving to third on a single and a walk.
Louisiana-Monroe cut the LSU lead to four in the top of the sixth. Brianna Love led off the inning with a solo home run. The Tigers responded with three runs in the bottom half of the inning. After a single by Stein, her third of the night, Mitchell drove her second home run of the season over the fence in center field. Duhon then doubled to right field and came around to score on an illegal pitch and a passed ball. Her run was the final run of the game as LSU closed it out 9-2.
Kandace Causey started and took the loss for the Warhawks. She allowed six runs on five hits with five walks and a strikeout in an inning and two-thirds. Lindsay Rittenhouse came on in relief and gave up three runs, two earned, on five hits with three strikeouts in three and a third. Heather Fritz closed it out with an inning of no-hit softball.
The Tigers return to action this weekend as LSU hosts the Easton Purple & Gold Challenge. The Tigers open play on Friday against Southern Miss at 3:45 p.m. before facing South Alabama at 6 p.m. The game against the Jaguars will be broadcast on 91.1 FM KLSU, the student-run on-campus radio station. Play continues on Saturday before championship play on Sunday concludes with the title game at 2 p.m.
ULM 001 001 0 – 2 5 0
LSU 510 003 x – 9 10 1
Kandace Causey, Lindsay Rittenhouse (2), Heather Fritz (6) and Megan Miller, Christy McDannell (5). Dani Hofer, Tiffany Garcia (3), Cody Trahan (4), Casey Faile (6) and Erika Sluss, Killian Roessner (3). WP ? Trahan (3-1). LP ? Causey (3-3). S ? None. HR ? Brianna Love, Tayl’r Hollis, Rachel Mitchell. T ? 2:07. A ? 534.